To Be Left in Charge
by Viridian Jester
Summary: Alexander was not good with kids, and getting stuck in the world of pokémon - which, mind you, was supposed to be fictional - with two of them depending on him for survival was not what he had in mind when he was told to babysit them for a week. He really didn't think there was a bright side to this (OC-centered fic).


**Chapter 1: So Not Worth It**

Alexander hated kids, he really did. He didn't have a particular reason for it - he just thought they were brats. The fact that he didn't really like talking to people in general didn't help matters much either. As a result, being stuck with his six year-old twin cousins over the weekend while his and their parents went off on a vacation wasn't ideal. No - they whined, they cried, and they even insulted him. Thankfully, he had some old _Gameboys_ and copies of _Pokémon Firered_ and _Pokémon Leafgreen_ lying around (Along with the rest of the main series - he really was a big fan of the Pokémon franchise, not that he'd ever admit that to any of his friends), and those shut them up pretty quickly.

He did try his best to care for them. Alexander cooked and cleaned and felt a little too much like a housewife after the first 12 hours (Not that there was anything wrong with that, Izumi Curtis was a badass); however, the power went out, so he couldn't make dinner for them. It was no big deal, and he figured that he'd just pick up a pizza. But… the kids' parents wouldn't want their "little angels" out of his sight, not even for a minute, and he didn't want to pay for delivery. Honestly, it baffled him that they trusted him so much - he was only 16, and he knew his mother didn't always get along with her brother and his wife all that well.

Regardless, that's how Alexander ended up driving halfway across town because the brats wanted to eat at a pizza restaurant and not just grab a takeout one. Oh, why did he give in so easily again? It definitely wasn't the puppy dog eyes...

Alexander ground his teeth together as he focused on the road in front of him. The kids were behaving themselves, but the weather was just plain terrible - the snow just kept coming down in thick, heavy clumps, and he couldn't see more than fifteen feet in front of him because of it. The wind was picking up too, and he was becoming a bit worried that his truck would blow or slip off the road soon (He wasn't an idiot - he would've never risked driving in this weather if he didn't have a truck, though he supposed that, looking back, he _was_ being a bit overconfident when he left the house).

"Alex!" the youngest of the twins, a brown hair, bright-eyed girl named Gisele, whined. Ah, it seemed that he spoke too soon regarding their behavior. Alexander cursed internally. "Why is it taking so long to get there? That pizza place is only 10 minutes from our house!"

"Yeah!" the other twin, a boy named Vincent, chirped. Alexander sighed.

"No nicknames, kid - they make me uncomfortable. Besides, your house is a state away - my house is in a different town, remember? Thankfully, the pizza place you guys like is a chain, so the one here will serve more or less the same food you're used to. It just takes longer to drive to. That, and it's snowing," he replied.

"Oh, I didn't notice the snow," Gisele stated, blinking. "It sure is pretty." She turned toward the window and pressed her small face and hands against the glass, admiring the snowflakes as they fluttered to the ground.

"There sure is a lot of it," Vincent mumbled sleepily, much less impressed by the weather. Alexander had to agree, it wasn't all too interesting, simply annoying. There _was_ an excess of snow today, and they had already gotten a foot earlier in the week that was still on the ground. He'd have to be extra careful driving or-

_Shit, _he thought, barely keeping himself from swearing aloud. The snow picked up again, though this time he couldn't see _anything _outside the truck, not even his headlights reflecting on the snow - just pure white. He gently pressed on the brakes, trying to bring the vehicle to a halt. There was no point in trying to drive through this - it was more trouble than it was worth. Damn pizza…

Unfortunately, they were rerouted onto a side road earlier due to construction, and since Alexander lived in the country, there were no other houses around. At least his car had plenty of gas and a built-in heater to keep them warm, but he hated leaving his engine idle while parked. His truck could normally handle poor weather conditions, but the snow was just piling up so fast…

He sighed and turned to the kids, trying to keep even pressure on the brake as the truck slowed down. "It might be awhile before we get any food, I can't drive in this." Vincent pouted and pulled on his coat sleeve from the back seat.

"But I'm hungry!" he whined and then proceeded to start crying. "Big meanie! You want us to sta- stave… starve, don't you!" Alexander was internally panicking at this point due to the weather and really think he could comfort a crying child on top of that. When his parents got home and found out he'd gotten stuck in the snow with his little cousins, he'd be in so much trouble. Unfortunately for him, as he was focused on gently turning the wheel to pull over on the side of the road and Vincent, he completely forgot about Gisele, who had crawled up to the front seat and pulled violently on the wheel, veering the vehicle right back onto the road and across both lanes.

Alexander was shocked. What. The. Fuck. Did her parents not teach her it was dangerous to touch the wheel while someone else was driving? The tires began skidding, and Alexander panicked, pushing her to the back seat with one hand and gripping the steering wheel tightly with the other in attempt to recover as the vehicle began to spin out. Gisele let out a yelp as she landed in a heap on top of her brother, who caught her and held onto her tightly. Thankfully, he'd stopped crying, as he was to busy gaping at Alexander and looking a bit green due to the circles the vehicle was violently spinning in.

The teen gave up on trying to recover, simply letting the vehicle do as it may. At least there were no other cars around, and he was only going fifteen to twenty when Gisele yanked on the wheel. Additionally, the road they were on cut through farmland, so they wouldn't actually hit anything. The worst they could do was run off into a field, no biggie.

As seen earlier though, nothing was going Alexander's way today. And he _did _let out a string of curses as the truck halted to a stop, back wheels lifting up the ground for a second or two as metal crunched in front of him, the windshield and the window of the seat next to him shattering inwards as that side of the car slammed into… a tree?

At least the kids didn't hear him over all of their screaming. He didn't think his parents would let him live it down if they ended up repeating _that _to another adult - it was rather… colorful.

Though speaking of colorful, the tree still had bright green leaves, and that wasn't even the most surprising thing. That crash had seemingly flung them into a completely different season… no, _world. _They were in a freakin' forest, no road in sight. Just tree after tree after tree, with moss climbing up the sides, and various flora coating the forest floor. Greens, browns, and blues abound, it was much more colorful than the white abyss they came from.

The kids were whimpering in the back seat, so he knew they were alive, at least. That crash, though sudden, wasn't nearly fast enough to seriously injure anyone (Although Alexander _might _have gotten a black eye from the airbag, if how the left side of his face was aching indicated anything).

"You guys alright?" he asked, and he heard shuffling from the backseat as he turned his head to look at them. Vincent's wrists were bruised a little, and Gisele bit her bottom lip hard enough to draw some blood, but they looked fine otherwise.

"N-no…" Vincent stuttered. "We nearly died! What was that?"

"I don't know, but it was fun. Let's do it again!" Gisele beamed, blue eyes sparkling, and Alexander groaned.

"Vincent is right, that was really dangerous. Gisele, you are never, _ever _allowed to touch the steering wheel, understand?" Alexander said evenly. He was pissed, but kept his voice as calm as possible. She may have wrecked his truck, but he shouldn't have gone out in that weather to begin with. She was just a kid. No need to scream at her like his dad did when he was little (He shivered at the thought - that man could be bloody terrifying at times). Gisele seemed to pick up on some of his anger, despite his best efforts, and began tearing up.

"O-Okay, Alex. I won't do it again," she said, hopping up from her seat and opening the back door. "Look a-at this! The weather is all better, huh?" Getting out of the vehicle, Alexander blew a strand of his messy black hair out of his face before picking her up and helping her get down from the truck. He helped Vincent next, whose bright blue eyes lit up as he surveyed the forest.

"Neat," he chirped, getting over his terror rather quickly. Alexander sighed. Even if he was hiding it well, his hands were still shaking from the crash. Ugh, the front looked totalled - he'd have to save up to buy another car, and it was a damn pain to do so for his first one. He _really _wasn't looking forward to that. Well, first thing's first - he needed a tow. Pulling out his cell phone, Alexander barely caught himself from throwing the damn thing when he saw that there was no signal. Great, they'd just have to walk. Although, the fact that he didn't know where the hell they were didn't do him any favors. Alexander quickly looked around the car, grabbing his wallet from the console and stuffing it in his red hoodie but otherwise leaving everything as it was. He didn't have anything useful in there - hell, the only thing he had in there besides his vehicle registration and insurance was a damn freezer bag. Doesn't exactly scream wilderness survival, now does it? Though speaking of wilderness…

"...Kids, it was snowing outside right before we crashed, or was that just me?" he inquired, his head crawling out of the light daze it had been in as he began to realize the gravity of the situation.

"Yes? That's why I said the weather got better, 'member?" Gisele said, nodding sagely.

"It's pretty warm here, and snow just doesn't disa- disappear like that, does it?" Vincent asked, staring at the teen, perplexed. Alexander's eyebrows knitted together.

"No… it doesn't. Do you guys know where we are?" Alexander said, worry leaking into his voice.

"...On the way to pizza?" Gisele said, confused to why he'd ask such a seemingly stupid question.

Alexander wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation, but instead began to look around for a forest path that they could possibly take to a main road or something. Yes… they almost died for pizza, and were now in the middle of a forest in summer, a great contrast from the winter country road they started on. No cell service, no road to go back to, and no one to help them. Gisele merely raised an eyebrow at him, confused as to why the teen was looking around them, while Vincent was quickly distracted by a moving plant with tall, straight leaves bundled together. The brown haired boy made his way over to it slowly before his face grew into an ear-splitting grin at the sight of the blue bulb creature that the leaves belonged to.

"Look, an oddish!" he exclaimed, quickly forgoing his concern for childish awe.

"Really? Lemme see!" Gisele shouted, running over to him. Alexander merely thought they were pretending to see pokémon after playing those games - admittedly, he did the same as a kid. He was going to ignore them as long as they didn't run off too far, but…

"Oddish odd!"

His head whipped around at those two words, a perfect imitation of the voice in that anime he watched oh so long ago. It… it-

It was an honest to goodness pokémon, crying as it was chased around be an overly eager Gisele. Vincent was trailing after her, trying to get her to stop. The teen blinked. This couldn't be happening. _This couldn't be happening. _

Abruptly, the oddish jumped behind a rock and began glowing a pale green. Instincts kicked in, and Alexander ran over to the twins can tackled them to the ground as the pokémon fired an absorb attack that went right over their heads. Shit, they needed to get out of here.

Alexander jumped up, picked up Gisele with his right arm, grabbed Vincent's hand with his left hand, and bolted in the opposite direction, weaving through the trees. Vincent didn't fight the teen and only took a second or two before his feet caught up with him. Breaking through bush after bush and shrub after shrub, it didn't seem like it was still following them, and Vincent was beginning to get out of breath. After glancing around to make sure that they were safe (There was a flock of pidgey flying overhead and a freakin' kakuna in that tree over there - no no no, this isn't the time to flip out over the existence of pokémon, this wasn't the time!), he stopped and crouched down.

"Vincent, Hop on my back. We should keep moving, try to find a path and get to civilisation," he muttered. The boy nodded before climbing on. Alexander pulled himself to his feet, struggling under the weight of the two children.

"Oh, there's a path right over there," Gisele stated, pointing off to the left. Alexander let out a sigh of relief - at least this kid was good for something. He probably wouldn't have caught it if she didn't say anything, to be honest.

"Thanks, kid. There seems to be a sign over there too, maybe it'll point us in the right direction."

"That's what they do, _of_ _course _it will," Gisele sniffed, and Alexander huffed. Cheeky brat.

As he approached the sign, a group of rattata scattered out from behind a bush and nearly made him lose his balance. Thankfully, he caught himself, and kept moving forward. Once he made it to the sign, he blinked, rereading it twice to confirm its message:

Azalea Town to the left, Goldenrod City to the right. Keep going travelers, almost out of the Ilex Forest!

Sure… sure. If there were _pokémon_ out and about, why not _be _in the pokémon world too? Oh, that's right - because _pokémon aren't real Alexander, where did all your brain cells go?_ This… this had to be some kind of elaborate prank, right?

At the same time, considering all that he'd seen and his cousins' testimony, it really couldn't be anything but real. The creatures were just too damn realistic. He _could _be in a comma, and this could all be a fever dream, but that would be totally lame. Honestly, it probably was a comma. His senses weren't dulled like in a dream, but… pokémon. Just couldn't be real, you know? Regardless, if by some fluke it wasn't… Alexander gulped. He'd have to treat this as real. Their parents would kill him if the kids got hurt if he decided to take a nap until he woke up or died (It may have been the pokémon world, but Alexander's dreams always broke down anticlimactically at the end, so he doubted that a journey would be very fulfilling for him at this point). It'd be better to waste his dream effort by caring for them than to freak out his cousins by breaking down. That's right, he had to stay strong. He had kids relying on him now (_Him_, an irresponsible, lazy teen who liked sleeping and watching _YouTube _all weekend - there's no way this could end badly, right?).

On top of all that, his truck - _his first car, his baby_ \- was gone, and all he had was his wallet and a useless cell phone. Oh, and two six year-olds. Wonderful. At that point, one of said kids spoke up.

"Oy, Alex," Gisele started. "Azare- Azalea Town is somethin' my friend mentioned. From a pokémon game they were playing. There was a bug guy in it." He nodded.

"Yeah, a bug type gym leader named Bugsy."

"There's no bug gym in _Firered _yet," Vincent chirped. Alexander sighed.

"There is none in that game. That one takes place in Kanto, this is the Johto region - it has a different set of gym leaders," he stated. Gisele blinked at him, confused, while Vincent's eyes lit up in comprehension.

"So there is more than one game? And each game is in a new place with different gym leaders?" he asked, growing excited. Alexander hummed in affirmation, blue eyes looking up to see that the sun was no longer visible above the trees. Late afternoon, then. Gisele huffed.

"You shoulda said that then, I'd have chosen another one! That Givanno guy is annoying…" she muttered. Alexander let out a light laugh before turning down the path to Goldenrod.

"Giovanni, kid. And Team Rocket is in Johto too, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't talk bad about their boss." That was a good point, actually. Was Team Rocket a thing here? If so, he'd have to avoid them. Running into criminals with no pokémon and two kids to look after probably wouldn't end well, even if he didn't have anything of value to steal.

"Mkay, though why aren't we goin' to bug guy?" Gisele asked, squirming in his arms, Alexander shifted his grip on her before explaining himself.

"Well, Goldenrod is a big city, so there are more people there that can help us figure out how to get back home." Vincent nodded, pleased by the teen's reasoning. Gisele, on the other hand, was not.

"You didn't tell me pokémon were real, and now we're gonna leave before I can catch one? No fair!" she whined. Vincent shifted, obviously a little upset by this too. Panicking, Alexander spat out the first thing that came to mind.

"You have to be ten to catch a pokémon, that's just how it is. You can get one of your own in a few years," he said. Gisele perked up.

"Promise?" she asked innocently. Alexander bit back a curse.

"...Sure," he replied demurely.

Great, already making promises he can't keep. With any luck, they'd get home before four freakin' years will pass (Hopefully after only a few days - he had to study for finals still, dammit). Gisele opened her mouth again, and Alexander sighed. This was going to be a long walk.

* * *

**AN: This story is… strange, for lack of a better word. I wanted to do a more in-depth look into the "character falls into another world" trope. What would someone do if they had companions? Dependents? Would they give up their dreams for others or not? How much of it are they willing to give up? How would someone **_**really**_ **act in that scenario? These are the questions I asked myself when brainstorming for this, and even though some may appear to be kind of answered now, these questions are at the heart of this story. **

**Of course, Alexander turned out to be a much nicer person than I thought he would, caring a lot even if he logically knows it shouldn't matter too much, so this story isn't nearly as dark as it could've been (which is probably a good thing - I, for one, find it difficult to root for characters who are 100% assholes). **

**Speaking of characters, this is the first time in years I've written kids as young as Giselle and Vincent as main characters, so I hope they turned out well. I tried to give everyone here a distinct personality, and I hope to continue developing their characters in the future.**

***This story is part of Project AESOP (An Excellent Summer of Posting), see bio for more details. Also, as is somewhat notable in the rest of the AN, this is one that I *hopefully* plan to continue, though it may take a while.**


End file.
